Vaughn-Cooke, Monifa

Research Interests

Behavioral mechanisms associated with system risk propagation to inform the design of user-centric products and systems, with the ultimate goal of improving productivity and safety.

Human reliability assessment

Human factors

Systems engineering

Healthcare system and medical device design

Design decision making

Psychometric tool development

Bio-behavioral risk assessment

Decision support systems

Background

Dr. Monifa D. Vaughn-Cooke joined the University of Maryland, College Park in 2012 as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department’s Design and Reliability of Systems Division. She received a B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2004. Her M.S. degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering, received in 2006 from the University of Southern California, focused on human factors and medical device design. She received a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 2012 focused on the application of human reliability tools to the healthcare system. Dr. Vaughn-Cooke’s interdisciplinary research synthesizes sociology, psychology, systems engineering and risk assessment. Her research aims to identify the behavioral mechanisms associated with system risk propagation to inform the design of user-centric products and systems, with the ultimate goal of improving productivity and safety.